


Mirage

by moodiful819



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Tattoos, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 04:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3367556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodiful819/pseuds/moodiful819
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sakura has a new-found appreciation for her teacher and Sai thinks she has heatstroke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirage

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a picture that was going around tumblr

It was a slow day. That was the only reason to be said for why Team 7 was seated by a gentle river, half-naked in the baking sun.

They had just finished an escort mission. Their client, a businessman traveling back to his country from Fire, had specifically requested them—had promised that his life was in grave danger—and that money was no object, but what had promised to be an expensive mission fraught with danger proved nothing more than a long, simple walk. The only villains were the ones unfortunately haunting their client’s head.

The day after dropping off their client, they were a third of the way home. The trip usually took two days, but upon hitting a fork in the road, Naruto had suggested taking the scenic route. He had gone through there with Jiraiya when he was younger and remembered it being quite pretty. Sai piqued at the idea of doing some landscape paintings while Kakashi merely shrugged a careless shoulder. They weren’t in any rush; why not?

So that was how they found themselves at the bottom of the valley by the river. However, it was a minor disappointment. The grand, powerful waterfall Naruto had promised was merely a particularly strong stream of water working its way through a short stack of rocks, and being the height of summer, the heat and humidity were stifling. It was like breathing through a piece of damp wool, they complained, except for Kakashi who was perfectly comfortable with his mask and the copy of Icha Icha Forever in his hands.

"Serves you all right for not being prepared."

Still, they had opted to take a break, and were determined to enjoy themselves in the water. Sakura had stripped down to her bindings and her pants, and the boys were dressed down to their pants as well, except for Kakashi who opted to retain the mask connected to his thin sleeveless shirt.

In the sky, the sun blazed high in the sky, thought it was still slowly inching towards the horizon. By this time, the raucous horseplay of Naruto and Sakura in the river had dwindled with their energy. The corn-haired boy was now fishing upstream while further down closer to the others, Sakura practiced taijutsu stances in the water. On the shore, Sai continued to sit with his brush delicately poised over Kakashi’s skin.

It had started about two hours ago. Sai had grown tired of painting the babbling water and was merely doodling on his sketchpad under the cover of his inky parasol when Naruto walked by and caught sighting of one of his drawings.

"That looks really cool. It looks like it could be a tattoo! Do you think you could draw it on me?"

Well, since nothing had managed to kill Dickless yet, he couldn’t see why not, and dug into his pack for a different brush. Once he was done, a large, loud-colored frog spanned the Kyuubi container’s chest and stomach. Because of the ink he had used, with a bit of chakra, Sai told him, he could even make the frog move. He had even managed to integrate the seal into the design and impressed by his work, Sakura asked to be next.

Hers was decidedly simpler—just a series of cherry blossom streaming across her shoulders and down her back in an inky river—but the dark fuchsia of her tattoo was iridescent and gleamed with each kata she practiced in the water.

"Would you like one, Kakashi?" 

The older man cocked his head up over the top of his book and gave a bland smile. Sure, he said. “I don’t want to be left out after all.”

So Sai dutifully moved further up the bank while Kakashi obediently rolled his up and over his shoulders. The fabric sat as a thick, dark cowl around his neck, but it didn’t matter to the Root nin. He was only painting the masked man’s back. What he did with the rest of his body didn’t matter to him.

What he would paint on Kakashi, on the other hand, did matter to him greatly. As with the other two tattoos, he wanted to depict something that would suit them. The loud frog and the girly, refined flower petals were obvious choices. What to put on the Sharingan-user was a different story. In the end, Sai chose the powerful, winding form of a dark-grey dragon.

With a final stroke of his brush, the horsehair just barely touching the warmed, inked skin, Sai withdrew his hand from the last meticulously-painted scale. It was done.

No longer sensing the brush at work, Kakashi stood up from the dirt. The paint was still drying on his skin, and while he could not see the ink on his back, he could feel the tautness it left on his skin. Following the lines that spiraled down his arms, Kakashi flexed and watched the twisting coils move and slide with his flesh, the whiskers stretched taut on his skin. On his back, the movement continued, rippling down his back like the roiling, rocking motion of a wave, ending with an elegant flick of its trailing tail before seemingly evaporating in the air.

With a nod of sincere gratitude, Kakashi offered his thanks and walked off to check on their other male teammate while Sai cleaned up his brushes. He had just been checking the cleanliness of one in the sun when a shadow eclipsed him, cooling his face in its shade.

"That was some beautiful work, Sai. I mean, you did amazingly with all of ours, but Kakashi-sensei’s was really special. Especially when it lifted off his skin. It was…breathtaking…" she said quietly, but her eyes weren’t on him when she spoke, instead looking at a point further down the river. She caught herself.

"Anyway, great job with the magic ink. You should teach me how to do it next time," she told him and began heading back down to the water.

Back on shore, Sai could only blink, confused. He had no idea what she was talking about; he’d just used regular ink... 


End file.
